I'm a total noob with 03's but I have the opportunity to potentially buy one from a buddy. Neither of us know much about the current 03 market. Its a Remington with a serial number that puts it in may/june of 1943. It has an RA '43 barrel and It has the 'scant' stock. He said he believes it came from the CMP and is going to try to find the paperwork for it. Condition looks very nice overall. Minimal dings on the stock and minimal wear of the parkerizing. No pitting in the bore and rifling looks pretty sharp I think. Seller said he doesn't need to make a killing on it, just an honest price we can both be happy with. Sorry for vague post. I know these kind of value posts are kind of annoying...any advice is much appreciated.

Looking online, VG and better M1903A3s are averaging around $1600.

Start at a grand and go up.  The scant stocks aren't as popular tho they are completely functional.  Not a rare piece, Remington made a lot of them and most tend to be in good shape.  THE USGI market is very fickle.  A lot of folks think they're sitting on a gold mine.  And they're going to sit on that mine for a very long time.